Moto2 Assen: Quotes, Results, Standings

The mercurial Andrea Iannone (Fimmco Speed Up, Speed Up) repeated his dominant Moto2 performance from Mugello by speeding from pole position to his second motorcycle racing victory of the season.

The Italian took all the drama out of the race on the first lap. He crossed the line with over a second in hand and continued to pull away at a brisk clip.

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By the 18th of 24 laps he had over nine seconds in hand, after which he decreased his pace. Even so, with a final lap that was three seconds slower than his best, he won by 4.492s.

Iannone has had a feast or famine season. Other than his wins here and in Mugello, he has only two points-paying finishes; a fourth in Le Mans and a 12th at Silverstone. If he’s to be a championship challenger he’ll need more consistency, a lesson he could learn from Toni Elias.

Elias (Gresini Racing Moto2, Moriwaki) increased his championship lead with a second place finish. The Spanish MotoGP veteran battled Ratthapark Wilairot (Thai Honda PTT Singha SAG) for the entire race, with the pair being joined by a trio of others in the final stages of the race.

With five laps to go Elias was leading the pack of five from Wilairot and Swiss rider Thomas Luthi (Interwetten Moriwaki Moto2, Moriwaki), who turned in his best lap of the race on the 19th.

Shoya Tomizawa (Technomag-CIP, Moto2 Suter) and Julian Simon (Mapfre Aspar, Suter) were close, second through sixth covered by two seconds. Two laps later the pack split up into a trio fighting for second and pair for fifth.

Luthi pushed Wilairot off the podium on the penultimate lap with a pass into the Haarbocht first corner right, but Wilairot came back at him only a few turns later and was leading when they exited the Strubben hairpin for the run down the longest straight. Then Luthi passed him again and led across the line as Elias edged away.

On the final lap, Elias led Luthi and Wilairot, with Wilairot again passing the Swiss rider into turn one. One turn later Luthi was again in second, a spot he’d hold to the finish.

Wilairot was just off the podium in fourth and just in front of Simon. Jules Cluzel (Forward Racing, Moto2 Suter), last week’s winner at Silverstone, finished seventh.

Elias now leads the championship with an even 100 points, 24 more than Tomizawa, who has two on Luthi.

The paddock packed up on Saturday night to begin the drive south to Catalunya, north of Barcelona, for the third race in as many weekends, and the seventh race of the season.

MOTO2 RIDER QUOTES

Andrea Iannone (Fimmco Speed Up, Speed Up in 1st(says) : “The race was hard today. Wilairot passed me and after a while I overtook him: this was a good chance as it was important to go away. Behind me Toni (Elias) and the other guys were fast, I couldn’t make the gap wider. Once half of the laps were gone, I managed to leave them behind with an important distance. It’s also thanks to my team: we work well together and that makes it easier to score results. Now it’s important to work using our brains, to stay focused because Catalunya is next Sunday and it’ll be an important GP.”

Toni Elias (Gresini Honda Moto2, Moriwaki in 2nd) says: “After some poor results at Mugello and Silverstone to get back on the podium is perfect. I had a bit of trouble with (Ratthapark) Wilairot and (Fonsi) Nieto at the start and lost precious time over the first two laps to Iannone that I couldn’t make up once I got clear. He was very strong, just like at Mugello. I worked hard for this second place though and it is important for the championship. It gives me and the team a boost and it seems we have come through the bad spell we had in the last couple of races. ”

Thomas Luthi (Interwetten Moriwaki Moto2, Moriwaki in 3rd) says: “The start of the race was not easy. I had a good start, but could not switch into the gear and lost the connection a little bit because of that. Then Iannone was already building up a gap behind him. At the end I was able to fight for the podium, but the second place was impossible to reach. I am very happy with my third place though.”

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